Here’s why there’s sometime a difference between the price that you see in the app / on a site like Google Finance & what you pay -
The single stock price you see for a stock in the Freetrade app, on Google Finance or in the newspaper is generally not the price that you can actually buy or sell a stock at.
There’s always a spread: the difference between what someone is willing to buy a stock at (bid) and what they are willing to sell at (ask).
The more efficient the market, the tighter (smaller) the spread.
The market maker business model means offering bids and asks on many stocks, always willing to buy or sell at some price. They make money from the difference between these prices.
We, on the other hand, never make money from the spread or include hidden commission baked into the spread.
quote from the ‘How do Freetrade’s orders ‘execute’?’ blog post
When we process your order, we’re required to give you ‘best execution’ by the regulator. You can see our order execution policy here & read more about how we handle your orders here -
To clarify, this isn’t a fee, it’s the rate that we use to convert your currency when you place an order.
I hope that helps!